Its definitely harassment and even threatening based 100% on racial prejudice.

I shouldn’t be surprised people think this is OK or even funny. It is the Internet after all.

If the piece(s) of filth that threw the banana peels had the courage of their convictions they would have confronted Simmonds personally to let him know they didn’t like him because he is black. Instead they anonymously & cowardly threw banana peels at him. The perpetrator(s) is a pathetic loser, just like the pathetic losers on the Internet that try to rationalize this act as being funny or immature.

Its definitely harassment and even threatening based 100% on racial prejudice.

I shouldn’t be surprised people think this is OK or even funny. It is the Internet after all.

If the piece(s) of filth that threw the banana peels had the courage of their convictions they would have confronted Simmonds personally to let him know they didn’t like him because he is black. Instead they anonymously & cowardly threw banana peels at him. The perpetrator(s) is a pathetic loser, just like the pathetic losers in the Internet that try to rationalize this act as being funny or immature.

I really don't care what the law *technically* says. Calling this a hate crime is silly, and only accomplishes in cheapening actual hate crimes. A lynching or a beating or a murder are not remotely the same thing as mocking someone's ethnicity by throwing a piece of fruit at them.

I don't think it's funny. I'm just not at my wits end with outrage and bloodlust about it. My reaction was more along the lines "what a stupid thing to do"

Froggy wrote:I really don't care what the law *technically* says. Calling this a hate crime is silly, and only accomplishes in cheapening actual hate crimes. A lynching or a beating or a murder are not remotely the same thing as mocking someone's ethnicity by throwing a piece of fruit at them.

I don't think it's funny. I'm just not at my wits end with outrage and bloodlust about it. My reaction was more along the lines "what a stupid thing to do"

Hate crime laws are as most laws are - full of technicalities.

The only people that don’t understand that are people that don’t understand the nature of law.

“Technicalities’ as you say are usually differentiated in the sentencing process if crimes of various degrees are charged and prosecuted under the same statute.

Lynching & murder would also involve other more significant criminal charges. People that understand the law would already know that.

Shocker. You're missing my point. The words "hate crime" invoke very specific connotations. Wether intentionally or not, you are implying that throwing a banana peel at someone is the same as lynching them or dragging them from a truck. There is a difference between the two, and I don't feel comfortable with lumping them all under the same umbrella.

Froggy wrote:Shocker. You're missing my point. The words "hate crime" invoke very specific connotations. Wether intentionally or not, you are implying that throwing a banana peel at someone is the same as lynching them or dragging them from a truck. There is a difference between the two, and I don't feel comfortable with lumping them all under the same umbrella.

I didn't imply anything. I didn't "lump" anything together. You don't understand the law. If somebody were lynched or dragged from a truck the punishment for the perpetrator would be predominately based on assault, level of premeditation, injuries sustained by the victim, and other factors independent of the racial aspect that made it a hate crime.

A person tossing banana peels at Wayne Simmonds wouldn't receive the same charges or punishment as somebody that physically assaulted Simmonds. Both would still be considered hate crimes in many states. The person committing assault would receive charges carrying significantly more punishment than a crime not involving physical violence.

You have erroneously attached physically violent connotations to all hate crimes and that isn't how hate crimes are exclusively defined in many states. Just because you think something is "the law" doesn't make it so. That is why laws are reduced to writing and codified instead of just being ideas that mean different things to different people.

Froggy is correct. This is not a hate crime. Hate crimes require violence, there was no violence here. If you want to suggest that a thrown banana is violent, I want to suggest that you check out the real world.